Five
high-school web designers from the Jordan Academy of Technology and Careers won
“Best in State” for their wardrobe management app design that caters to the
blind and visually impaired.

“I
never considered myself to be one of those super-smart people that could ever win
something like this, so the thought that we could is amazing,” said award
recipient Eric Evans, a senior.

The
app design originated with Taylor Dee. The junior, who considers herself to be ”all
about clothes,” said she wanted to create an app that would help users mix and
match their outfits and become more confident.

One
of Dee and Evan’s team members, senior Brandee Hick, is legally blind, so Dee suggested
her team add an audio element to their app to accommodate people who have
visual ailments. Brandee said she loved the idea, so the team got to work.

“Getting
ready is not a huge problem that blind people complain about, but this app is
something that could help in our day to day,” Hick said.

In
just three weeks, Evans, Dee and Hick, along with classmates Kyle Christensen
and Naomi Lundberg, designed “Pocket Closet,” the
app that matches, organizes and recommends outfits. The app is also intended to
track clothing articles from the hamper to the washing machine and back to the
closet. It has a donation feature, which
allows users to see nearby locations they could donate the clothes they don’t
wear often.

Their
design plan shows the app working as follows: Participants take pictures of
clothing items, and the system gives a description
of the article and suggests what could be worn with it. When enabled, the app’s
“visually impaired” setting reads the information aloud. The app also has a
setting that switches color labels from swatches to words, so those who are
colorblind can make better use of the
application.

The five teens entered their design into
the Verizon Innovative Learning app challenge, along with 1,800 other
contestants, and won the Utah portion. Although they didn’t place in the
national competition, Christensen said he was proud and shocked.

“There
are so many students in Utah who are so good at this kind of stuff, and it feels
awesome to be honored like that,” he said, adding that he’s already
added the award to his resume. “This kind of stuff
will really help us out in the future with our school and jobs.”

Verizon
sent the students and their teacher, Melinda Mansouri, award certificates, a
plaque and a 6-foot-by-4-foot
banner congratulating them on their win. The students gawked at the size of the
“Best in State” sign.

“It’s
almost big enough that I can read the wording on it,” Hick joked as she
chuckled.

Word
of their victory spread through their school and communities about the app, and
folks are already asking the group how they can access “Pocket Closet.” The
teens answer that people can’t yet.

“This competition was just for the planning
portion of the app—where
you plan out what the app will be,” Mansouri said. “If you win the national
competition, they send out IT programmers to help you create it. What will
happen—because we didn’t get that far—is that during fourth quarter in April
and May, my students will actually build the
app.”

The team of five plan to have their app in the
app store by mid- to late-May.

Mansouri
said the sky was the limit when the group planned its apps but said the first prototype the students will build in class
will likely be simplified and focus on a few key functions.

“It’s
a start,” she said. “I’ve had old students go back and rework their apps and
improve them over time.”

While
the teens attend the JATC together, each has a different home high school.
Evans attends Murray High, Christensen attends Riverton High, Dee attends
Herriman High, Hick attends Bingham High and Lundberg attends West Jordan High.
To finish their project—which included two short videos, a logo design, rendering
of the app screens and essays—the teens got together on their own time.

“This group had a vision, and they just
really worked together in a way that’s unusual for high school students so that
the design worked,” Mansouri said. “I’m very proud of them for working together
and for putting in the extra time to make this a success.”